Wabash Avenue YMCA
The Wabash Avenue YMCA, on the south side of Chicago, is a city Landmark that served the city’s African-American population and in basketball established a preeminent reputation from its founding in 1913 through the early 1940s. The legendary institution sponsored youth and men’s basketball teams, but not women’s teams, and competed in YMCA city, state, and national competitions. The Wabash YMCA, located at 3763 S. Wabash Avenue, was built in 1913 for the specific purpose of providing a YMCA facility for African Americans, who were barred from other YMCAs in the city. The facility was financed primarily by Julius Rosenwald, Chairman of Sears, Roebuck, and Company, who added his funds to those raised by African American residents. The Wabash YMCA did not play against the other YMCAs until the 1920s, with the sole exception of the Emerson Street YMCA in Evanston, which was also a YMCA serving the suburb’s small black community. In December of 1914, the Wabash high school team team was thoroughly thrashed by the Emerson Street high school team, 55 to 10. The first notable Wabash YMCA team was its 1916 heavyweight team with star player Virgil Blueitt, plus Bobby Anderson, Raze Curry, and Thornton Winters. Blueitt was named captain and he soon added George Duff and Creed Hubbard to the lineup. For the next four years, the Wabash YMCA team was the premier amateur African American team in the city and competed against the top amateur teams in the Midwest and the East. Other Wabash YMCA teams in 1916 included a lightweight (135-pound team), and a 125-pound team. Highly successful was the 125-pound team of Butler, Dudley, Leavell, Cousins, and McDougall. The lightweight team consisted of McQueen, Harrison, Winters, F. Legare, Burdett, and Peoples. The Blueitt-captained heavyweight team regularly toured the East and Midwest, largely against African American amateur and YMCA teams. In February and March of 1917, the team toured the Midwest, losing to the Invincibles of Cincinnati by a 41-39 and the Indianapolis Colored YMCA, 23-17. In April the Wabash YMCA ended its season by meeting the famous Incorporators at the Manhattan Casino in New York, losing to them 34-23. In the 1919-20 season, the Wabash YMCA heavyweights traveled east and beat the Indianapolis Colored YMCA, the Vandals of Atlantic City, Wilberforce College in Ohio, a Springfield team in Ohio, the Collegians of Philadelphia, and the Colored YMCA in Philadephia, garnering a 9-0 record by late January of 1920. Later the team played the Loendi Big Five in Pittsburg and the Olympics in Harrisburg. In April, Wabash Avenue competed in the Amateur Athletic Foundation annual Chicago area tournament, and won the heavyweight (or unlimtied) championship, beating the Dvorak Oak Homes, 22 to 15. The 1920 Wabash YMCA lightweight team consisting of F. Manning, F. Bohee, C. L. Hubbard, G. F. Cardwell, G. Hines, and veteran players F. LeGare, and McQueen, was also highly successful. In December 1920, Blueitt migrated the heavyweight Wabash YMCA team to the Forty Club of Chicago, a socialite organization in the city. Along with his veterans Bobby Anderson, Thornton Winters, George Duff, Creed Hubbard, and Raze Curry, he added the great track star, Sol Butler. After the Wabash YMCA lost its heavyweight team, the institution focused on youth basketball, supporting teams in a variety of weight classes—midget (105 pound), 110 pound, 125 pound, 135 pound, and 145 pound. The teams most common opponent was the Cornell Square teams. By the 1922-23 season, the Wabash YMCA was able to compete in the city-wide YMCA Basketball League. In 1923, one of the Wabash ‘Y’ teams won the league championship. In 1924 the Wabash YMCA was sponsoring midget, lightweight, and heavyweight teams. The lightweight team, the Wabash ‘Y’ Gophers, took third in the state YMCA tournament of 1924. That year, the Wabash YMCA sponsored a basketball tournament, and its lightweight team won the tournament, beating the Chicago Maroons, 21-20. The Gophers consisted of such top players as Randolph Ramsey of Phillips High, William “Ham” Watson of Lane Tech, Sheldon Yerby of Hyde Park, and Henry Cress of Phillips High. These players became the core of the Bill Brock and His Famous Chicagoans team in 1926. Watson and Ramsey would later join the Savoy Big Five.In 1925 and 1926, the Wabash YMCA sponsored teams in four weight classes, namely the Wabash ‘Y’ Weasels (110 pounds), Wabash ‘Y’ Badgers (115 pounds), Wabash ‘Y’ Squirrels (125 pounds), and Wabash ‘Y’ Gophers (145 pounds). The teams competed against such teams as the Armour Square, Cornell Square Bullets, and the University Settlement Feds. In 1927, the Wabash YMCA began sponsoring a lightweight team, called the Wabash Y Rangers, whose members included the great Agis Bray. The team entered the YMCA Basketball League in the 1927-28 season, and won the league 135 pound championship. Beside Bray, its members included Herbert Griffin, Sam Jordan, Sam Perry, Robert Jarrett, Robert Buckner, Rudolph Mitchell, and William Jackson. The team garnered a 27 and 4 record that season. Their season ended with elimination from the AAF Cook County championship by the Bethlehem Church team, consisting of players from the Harrison High basketball team. The 1930s saw Wabash YMCA field two teams, a heavyweight and a lightweight squad. In 1936 and 1937 the heavyweight team won the YMCA city championship, in the latter year beating their biggest rivals the Division ’Y’ Clippers, 36-35. In the early 1940s, Wabash YMCA had stellar teams, notably the heavyweight team with the great Nat Clifton. The Wabash teams, however, could not get pass the premier YMCA team in the city and state, the Division ’Y’ Clippers. In the 1941 YMCA state tourney, the Wabash YMCA heavyweights lost to the Division team in the semifinals, and had to settle for third place. The lightweight team that year lost to the Division team in the YMCA city championship game. In 1942, both the heavyweight and lightweight teams lost to the Division ‘Y’ Clippers in the city YMCA championships. The heavyweight team that year consisted of Nat Clifton, George Edwards, C. Ward, Chuck Bowen, Fred Stone, H. Daley, Wes Armstrong, Simmy Gardner, W. Bronson, H. Thomas, T. Yates, and J. Owens. In the 1942 national YMCA title game, Division Street beat the Wabash YMCA, 47-45 and holding the great Nat Clifton to no points. The Wabash YMCA closed in the late 1970s. In 1986 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2000, after a nine-million dollar renovation, the Wabash YMCA was reopened to serve the community.